Chapter 697: 175. Refrain
Fisher took a deep breath and arrived at the bottom of the crevice. Before the increasingly narrowing crevice, the gaping mouth emanating a strong aura of death appeared before him. Below, the entrance leading to the authority of death had completely swallowed Elizabeth. Without hesitation, he took a deep breath and headed downwards.
Watching Fisher vanish from sight, Raphael anxiously pressed his lips together, while the Duke of Peach couldn’t bear to look.
She covered her face, unsure of what to say, and could only turn her gaze towards the few Chaos Races above that had suddenly grown quiet in the sky.
She couldn’t help but feel that these Chaos Races seemed a bit too at ease.
They had been fighting fiercely just moments ago, yet now their own kin was being bound by that wandering doctor, and they had suddenly quieted down after merely casting a spell?
That didn’t quite fit the style of this group of Chaos Races.
Moreover, she had heard of the wandering doctor Gouwen; he was certainly capable, but that was in the field of medicine. In terms of combat, she had never heard of such a figure who could control an entire Sea of Souls filled with Chaos Races. There were dozens of them after all.
Thinking of this, the Duke of Peach couldn’t help but ask,
“Was that method below also something the Whale Folk told you? How would he understand so much after just one trip to the Spirit Realm?”
Pisces didn’t reply, only looking calmly and meaningfully below, completely unafraid like the other Demigod Chaos Races beside him,
“Who knows.”
The Duke of Peach clicked her tongue but didn’t dwell on it. Although she felt it was a bit unworthy for Fisher to go down to save Elizabeth, the sight of Fisher’s figure completely disappearing still stirred up her concern for Valentina.
Thus, she could only calmly look down and await the outcome.
Below, after the two eye sockets rolled to the ground, seeing Jasmine stunned, Valentina stepped forward to take charge of the situation,
“The ritual is about to begin!!”
After saying all this, Valentina turned her head to look at the still-dazed Jasmine, patting her shoulder. This touch startled Jasmine, who turned wide-eyed to look at Valentina.
“Jasmine, you…”
“I-I just…”
“Elizabeth has already conceded. She is willing to offer her eye to atone for the past sins against you. You…”
“No, no.”
Looking at the rolling eye sockets on the ground, Jasmine finally came to her senses and covered her face. The urgent feeling of a beloved one about to leave, the reckoning of past grievances, all ignited like a flame just moments ago, but now, as the eye sockets rolled to the ground, that flame seemed to flicker and die.
Tears flowed down Jasmine’s cheeks as she gazed at the deathly crack appearing under Elizabeth, watching her slowly sink into it without resistance. Only then did she realize what was happening.
“Pandora’s eye… She used her eye on me.”
“What?”
Thinking of this, Jasmine didn’t say anything further but hurriedly ran towards Elizabeth, reaching out to grasp her sleeve.
“Elizabeth!!”
But the deathly crack below had already completely torn open, and the threads of death’s aura tugged Elizabeth downwards, causing Jasmine’s pupils to contract.
Meanwhile, witnessing Jasmine about to rush into the deathly crack, Valentina swiftly spread her wings and flew to grab her, tightly restraining her,
“Jasmine the Priestess, what’s going on?! Calm down!”
“Her eye can manipulate my desires. Just now she offered her eye, and her willingness to die was her own choice. She wanted to do this…”
“…”
Valentina held Jasmine, floating in mid-air, looking unbelievingly downward, but below, Elizabeth had already been completely swallowed by the deathly crack.
Yet no one dared to venture in, even though Valentina’s heart was filled with sympathy. She had no reason to do anything more.
Either based on position, no one wanted to save her; or based on rank, no one could save her.
But at that moment, the space above the deathly crack suddenly ruptured. It turned out the entrance to the crevice was opened, and a wounded Fisher rushed out from under Dalasgon’s authority, charging towards the deathly crack.
“F…”
Valentina’s eyes widened, her hand reflexively raised in shock, but in a flash, Fisher had resolutely plunged into it, vanishing from sight.
As he entered the crack leading to the authority of death, a foul aura enveloped Fisher like a kaleidoscope, as if his face was covered in oil, and even his nostrils and ears were blocked.
“Urgh…”
Fisher tried to call out to Elizabeth, but when he opened his mouth, it only felt sickeningly blocked.
Before him was complete darkness, yet voices echoed in his ears like an echo,
“Elizabeth, my shadow of Nineteen Rank is still here. We can hold them down; there’s still a chance.”
Though he had never heard this voice before, Fisher instinctively recognized it belonged to Pandora’s eye. Despite the change in tone and pitch, the timbre was unmistakably the same as the Pandora he had met thousands of years ago.
This is…
The sound of Pandora’s eye conversing with Elizabeth?!
“…”
Elizabeth didn’t respond; instead, Pandora’s eye kept opening its mouth repeatedly,
“What’s wrong? Just a little setback and you’re like this? Are you afraid?”
“Their target is Fisher.”
Elizabeth’s voice suddenly rang out, filled with fatigue and despair, resonating through Fisher’s mind as if it were a lament from her very soul.
“The foreign gods may truly have come for the deities, but they are also here for… Fisher.”
“Just now, Heow almost took him away right in front of him. Even Heya, worried about Him, and the reckoning deities, He didn’t even care.”
Pandora’s tone quieted, while Elizabeth’s voice trembled further, filled with increasing fear—the terror of losing Fisher.
“What does it matter if it continues? Now, the Chaos Races are entering the world just for revenge. Even with their honor, they cannot kill Dalasgon again. Am I to destroy this world? I just want… a semblance of order.”
“I just want to go back to the past with Fisher… that’s all.”
“But if their target is him, even if I succeed, I will only become their wedding garment; they will still take him away from me, right?”
Pandora fell silent, and the darkness before Fisher brightened.
In the distance, at the dark horizon, Elizabeth’s frail silhouette appeared in his sight.
“Elizabeth!”
She hung her head, her disheveled golden hair falling silently, blood trickling down her cheeks.
“I’m so tired.”
“No matter how much I resist fate, I can’t win. I’ve tried so many times, yet in the end, it still takes Fisher away from me.”
“I’m really so tired and don’t want to continue; I’ve already lost. Always losing to fate.”
“He must hate me for disturbing his peace with those women.”
“Then let them be; let him stay safely in this world, away from the hands of foreign gods.”
Fisher dashed towards her, but the distance between him and Elizabeth remained unchanged on the horizon; no matter how hard he chased, it would not decrease.
Pandora’s voice rang out again, filled with unwillingness.
“Is this what you want? Are you satisfied with this? Is losing everything the result you wanted? Are you content?”
“…”
Elizabeth did not speak, merely standing dazedly at the edge of darkness on the horizon, unhesitatingly walking towards an even darker place.
Her silhouette made Fisher’s eyes widen, and he quickly opened his mouth to call out to her, but the voice that came out wasn’t his, but Pandora’s.
“You are truly hopeless!”
“As long as there is a new order, wouldn’t it be good to have countless ‘Fishers’ that can give you the same experience?”
“You are stubborn; even if he is no longer human, transformed into a monster, he is still so important to you; you are despicable; even if he hates you to the core, wishing you ill, you still care about his safety; you are foolish; even if he was so cowardly back then, abandoning you due to the slander of other women, you can still forgive him!”
“Come back, Elizabeth! Come back!!”
“Do you think that by doing this in the end you can be clean? Do you think that by doing this those women will understand you? You are daydreaming; Fisher wouldn’t care about anything. He would only think you deserved to die, relieved that there’s finally no more you to bother him!
“You can only win to get everything; haven’t you always thought this way?”
The hand outstretched wasn’t Fisher’s. His five fingers seemed to turn into Pandora’s petrifying power in this distorted space. Wherever he went became stone; wherever he looked became stone.
He chased after Elizabeth with his gaze, only for it to cause her body to tremble and slowly turn painfully to stone.
Hearing Elizabeth’s whimper, he hurriedly averted his gaze, and from afar, her silhouette gave another ‘crack-crack’ sound as she struggled free from petrification, continuing to walk forward.
Pandora’s words made Elizabeth’s body tremble slightly, but in the end, she still moved forward.
“I’ve already lost, and it doesn’t matter. If he thinks that way, then let him think that way.”
Fisher raised his head, his eyes bloodshot. He didn’t want to speak anymore, for even if he did, no voice would come out. Pandora’s voice was enormous, for this was not a true dialogue since her descent; Pandora’s eye had already been removed.
“Have you thought this through?! I was born from the authority of death! Without me, you cannot withstand the aura of death; you will die!”
“…That suits me just fine.”
“Fool! You don’t know what kind of pain that is?! You’re not at the point of death yet; the aura of death will force you to experience the pain of every possible death in the past until you are completely stained by death, utterly swallowed by Him!”
“…Fine.”
“Elizabeth!!”
As Pandora screeched in unwillingness, Fisher seized the moment, daring not to raise his head to look ahead, fearing it would petrify her further. In the next instant, Fisher stomped down hard, his whole being becoming a flash of lightning hurtling towards Elizabeth.
Just then, the surrounding thick aura of death finally recognized him, a once-escaped old friend, and countless black hands surged towards his direction.
Fisher struggled to dodge the descending hands, subconsciously preparing to replicate the operation on Dalasgon’s authority.
Dalasgon had no consciousness, allowing him to easily manipulate a part of that authority. Heya was the same; if it could be replicated…
But that thought only crossed his mind for a second before Fisher had to abandon it.
First, the authority of death was different from Dalasgon’s authority in the crevice. His authority operates in reality, and losing consciousness was to allow that authority to run in reality without interfering with it. If Fisher acted recklessly, it could lead to disaster, and in that case, not only would he fail to save anyone, but everything outside would be wasted too.
Second, unlike Dalasgon, Heya’s authority was shared with Heow; if they encountered old enemies from the past, that wouldn’t be good.
With no other choice, he could only brace himself and charge inside.
As the light of death’s authority illuminated ahead, the concept of Elizabeth’s death began to emerge. All the time from her past became bright, intensifying the aura of death.
Fisher gritted his teeth and desperately ran forward, while behind him, the deathly aura that had once pursued him grew heavier, tugging at his body, eager to drag him into the quagmire of death.
“Pfft!”
He was already covered in wounds, and under the chaotic aura of death, blood spurted everywhere, leaving a long trail of blood in the darkness behind him.
Around him, the corpse-like Dexter, Godlin the Ninth, and Lunsis wrapped around him like wraiths.
“Father, Elizabeth is a princess and has the responsibility to help the Godlin family. Blake is close to father, but ultimately father will grow old, and Blake has no offspring. Why not choose a suitable husband from the young directors of the Exploration Company?”
“Pay attention to your demeanor early. You are the Eldest Princess, the face of the royal family. You must be graceful. Why are you so stubbornly competing with your brother in academics every day? Not learning to restrain yourself, not knowing how to control.”
“After all, you as a woman cannot inherit the throne, so I, Lunsis, who is not as good as Dexter, am still capable of competing with him.”
That past terror, the fear of Elizabeth not having control over her fate, and the confusion created by being burdened by “false familial affection” began to condense into a terrifying manifestation of death before him.
Fisher looked up and saw, illuminated by the light of death’s authority, Elizabeth appearing in her bedroom with a dagger after realizing her father’s arrangements for her.
That dagger was the blade Elizabeth intended for her own life; perhaps in such a sickly political environment, a soul as stubborn and serious as Elizabeth would find it the most tormenting, perhaps it was from that moment on that she had contemplated ending her ironic life with that dagger.
Now, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to end her life with that dagger?
Ahead, Elizabeth at the horizon stood motionless. Fisher, with red eyes, watched as the young, budding Elizabeth from years ago pushed him aside, holding the dagger and rushing towards her distant silhouette.
That young Elizabeth was filled with unshed tears and unyielding spirit, raising the dagger. The countless misunderstandings and helplessness of youth transformed into a courageous release.
“Elizabeth!”
Fisher twisted the heads of Lunsis and Godlin the Ninth, then hurried towards young Elizabeth, pulling her into his embrace, controlling the blade in her hand.
In his arms, that little Elizabeth was full of tears and regret, looking at her own silhouette in front, still weakly swinging the dagger.
“It’s all fake… fake… I have no family… they are all fake.”
“I know, I know, Elizabeth.”
Fisher lowered his head, holding the small Elizabeth in his arms, but the little Elizabeth felt like that dagger, and just holding her caused Fisher’s body to feel as if it were being pierced countless times by that dagger.
But he couldn’t bear to hurt the little girl crying in his arms who could only confess her sadness under the quilt back then, nor could he let her approach the distant Elizabeth, so he could only allow her to vent in his embrace.
“Wuwu… wuwu…”
Finally, the crying of the little Elizabeth gradually subsided. She leaned against Fisher’s chest, her tears having long flowed down her cheeks and soaked his clothes, staining his wounds.
After a long time, the small Elizabeth in his arms finally put down the dagger in her hand and extended her small hand, pointing ahead.
Fisher looked up and felt that the Elizabeth at the end of the horizon seemed to be a bit closer.
But at that moment, countless pairs of eyes suddenly opened in the darkness, densely packed, varying in size, but all resembling the same girl.
The eyes, like stars, the moon, and the sun, slightly bent at the same time, leaking out mockery and ridicule, as a girl’s disdainful echo resounded,
“Your Highness doesn’t really think you can grow old together with Senior Fisher, do you?”
Those eyes seemed to scrutinize Fisher, as if wanting to see through everything about him,
“What does this have to do with you? I have already privately pledged my life to him, and that cannot be changed by anyone.”
“Oh? Is that so? But what if I say that I also like Senior Fisher and want to be with him?”
In his arms, the little Elizabeth became afraid, gripping Fisher’s sleeve tightly and looking at him with a pleading and pitiful gaze,
“No, don’t go, Fisher. I only have you.”
Fisher took a breath, tightly holding the small Elizabeth in his arms, stood up, covered her eyes, and looked at those dense mocking gazes alone,
“Don’t look, Elizabeth.”
“Okay.”
The little Elizabeth obediently buried her head in Fisher’s arms, as if she had found a port in a storm, feeling safe and still.
But the more at ease the Elizabeth in his arms became, the more pain Fisher felt inside.
Because back then, he hadn’t given her that port.
Fisher gritted his teeth, holding her as he continued to chase after the figure of Elizabeth at the horizon, and all around, those mocking eyes followed closely, encroaching on Fisher, blocking his view, pressing against his body, watching the trembling Elizabeth in his arms like evil spirits, making her shiver.
“Oh, if the people from the Golden Palace knew about this, who knows what would happen?”
“The Eldest Princess, whom they held high hopes for, has secretly pledged her life to a poor boy with no background.”
“Actually, you know it’s very hard for you to achieve a happy ending. How long can you keep deceiving yourself, Your Highness?”
“You kept all this from him; how long can you bear it by yourself? How long can your beautiful love last?”
“Be realistic, Your Majesty. I am also helping you, giving you an exit.”
Those eyes spoke one after another, buzzing around Fisher’s ears like flies, but no matter how he waved his hands, he couldn’t disperse them, and their voices only grew louder.
In his arms, the trembling Elizabeth suddenly spoke softly,
“Please, please don’t tell them.”
Fisher paused for a moment, looking down at the little Elizabeth curled up in his arms.
He opened his mouth, and his eyes couldn’t help but tremble.
Back then, Elizabeth’s answer was this sentence, not anything else.
“Let me beg you. I can’t lose him; he’s all I have.”
Fisher raised his head, shaking, and again tried his best to accelerate, but those eyes behind him still chased relentlessly,
“Oh, I didn’t expect that the Eldest Princess would also come to beg me one day?”
“This feeling is truly wonderful.”
“Oh, well then, you should beg me some more; perhaps I might show mercy.”
Fisher could no longer endure and suddenly swung his hand, wanting to tear apart those eyes beside him. This time, he unexpectedly touched a solid form.
His immense power directly caused large numbers of eyes to burst, countless blood splattering, and they howled as they retreated, turning from mockery to pitiable and aggrieved voices, the words were those he had once said to Fisher at her birthday banquet,
“Ah, I’m sorry, Senior Fisher, it’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have liked you; I should have let Your Highness, I’m sorry. Wuwu, I was wrong; I shouldn’t have interrupted your affairs with Your Highness.”
The Elizabeth in his arms shook like a sieve, and as those eyes vanished, what appeared in front of him was a young Nali gentleman with black hair.
That gentleman was so young, turning to look at Fisher, his eyes filled with shock and a trace of detectable disgust,
“Wuwu, it’s not like this, Fisher. Please let me explain.”
Until facing that gaze, the little Elizabeth in his arms fearfully struggled to escape from Fisher’s embrace, fleeing desperately.
“Elizabeth!”
No matter how Fisher tried, he couldn’t catch her and could only turn to look at the young Nali gentleman with that kind of expression.
The gentleman was none other than Fisher Benavides himself.
“Elizabeth.”
Fisher gasped, slowly rising, and looking at the young, over twenty years old, impetuous version of himself.
His eyes held distance and fear, and Fisher, like a beast, approached him without a word.
But as Fisher drew near, the young Fisher Benavides actually retreated silently.
He was avoiding, he was escaping; he was afraid, thinking he had been wrong about Elizabeth all along. He just found it troublesome and wanted to irresponsibly escape from the quagmire of Elizabeth.
Why?
Because when he was with Elizabeth, she always hid those burdens, making the young Fisher feel that being with the princess was no different from a normal relationship, but instead, she shone brilliantly because of her identity as the Eldest Princess.
He just felt fortunate but didn’t know that there was a cost behind all of this.
Yes, Elizabeth liked this poor boy, but why did he think her love came without cost, just mutual affection?
He was simply young; he was simply cowardly, unaware of the dirtiness behind it and the pressure she bore. He was just youthful and reckless, feeling proud.
But now, Fisher regretted.
“You damn it. Stop right there!!”
Watching his younger self speak without a word as he continued to back away, Fisher could no longer hold back and unleashed the power of the Mythical Rank.
The young human Fisher Benavides had no chance to escape from him, just easily grabbed by the fierce-looking Fisher and slammed to the ground, making a dull sound.
The young, reckless Fisher Benavides, who dared to publicly insult the principal, still looked defiant, and Fisher raised his hand and gave him a hard punch on that young handsome face.
“Bang!”
“What are you doing?! Are you crazy?!”
“What am I doing?”
“Bang!”
Fisher, lowering his eyes, struck again at the other side of his face that had not been hit.
Blood covered his face, and the Fisher Benavides beneath him still looked at him with indignation,
“What use is it to beat me to death?”
“Don’t you know how you felt back then?”
“You were weak; you were avoiding. How many times did she explain it to you? You ignored her until she was heartbroken. After graduating in sorrow, you avoided her! Do you think giving me two punches now absolves you of responsibility?
“When the war with Shivali broke out and she led the troops to charge into danger, she sent you a letter explaining it all. What about you? Did you read it? Did you reply? You couldn’t even send a revised letter to wish her a safe return; you…”
With wounds covering his body, Fisher gasped, yet he raised his fist again, aiming for the Fisher Benavides below him.
But at that moment, a small, warm body suddenly hugged him, preventing his iron fist from falling.
“Don’t hit him anymore.”
“…”
It was the little Elizabeth behind him, sobbing as she tightly hugged Fisher, shaking her head repeatedly,
“Don’t hit him; I don’t blame him. I’ve already forgiven him. Please don’t hit him; I will be sad.”
“…”
Fisher’s raised fist trembled in the air, finally unable to fall, instead hitting his own face hard, casting his expression into deep shadow.
“Bang!”
“Pfft!”
The little Elizabeth behind him still held him tightly, then gripped his hand firmly, not allowing him to move.
She didn’t want to see any Fisher get hurt.
“She’s right in front of you, Fisher; this is the last chance.”
Behind him, the little Elizabeth pointed ahead, in front of the manifesting Apocalypse Prophecy, the brilliance of the horizon had already engulfed Elizabeth’s figure.
Wounded all over, Fisher stood up, and behind him, the little Elizabeth immediately ran over to the young Fisher Benavides, concerned about whether he was hurt.
Fisher himself, dragging his heavy body, gasped and silently moved toward the direction of the Apocalypse Prophecy.
The light of death in front swallowed him; the first two times that had made Elizabeth want to die had already exhausted him, but he still moved his heavy steps forward.
Crossing through that light, a strong smell of gunpowder and blood surged at Fisher’s nose.
He seemed to be in a camp.
In front of him, numerous bodies dressed in Nali military uniforms were piled up, although it was a camp of the Nali army, the scene was one of appalling tragedy after the conflict with his own troops, clearly indicating a mutiny had occurred.
But perhaps, it was not just a simple mutiny.
For beside the main tent before him, numerous dead soldiers held firm, not allowing anyone to approach, even in death, they tightly gripped the flag of Elizabeth’s legion placed before the tent.
“Ugh.”
From within that tent, a faint moaning sound could be heard, and Fisher quickly raised his gaze, crossing over many puffs of smoke and piles of corpses to that tent.
“Ugh.”
The groans from pain quickened Fisher’s steps. He struggled towards the tent, lifting the curtain that covered the entrance, revealing the scene within.
He saw that due to the loyal soldiers outside protecting her at all costs, no enemies had entered the tent.
All that remained was a makeshift bed.
Fisher looked up but could not help but feel his pupils suddenly constrict.
“Ugh.”
He saw drops of blood dripping from the bedding, and because the army was preoccupied with the internal strife, no medical personnel had attended to her, even the blood on the ground was already dried.
And on the bed, the severely injured, either soaked with crimson or scorched black Elizabeth lay there tragically. Her face had become a blurred mess from the explosion, and even her once dazzling golden hair was entangled with her mangled wounds, making it impossible to separate them.
Her eyes, having undergone only rudimentary bandaging, were already soaked with bloodstains, as if she were lying amidst a disordered pool of blood, on the brink of death.
Yet even so, that similarly wounded hand still struggled to raise up from the bed, even if she could see nothing, even if her whole body hurt incomparably.
She still raised her hand, moaning.
Her dried throat no longer carried the voice of a lark but sounded like a saw cutting through a tree.
Her lips trembled continuously, from painful moans, fearfully, terrified, despairingly opening her mouth,
“F-Fisher.”
“Fisher, wuwu.”
“Where are you? I’m so scared.”
“Help me, help me.”
Above the tent, a gold-glowing eyeball had fallen into this small space at some point, as if responding to her call.
In front of the battered and near-mortal Elizabeth, even if he had endured countless torment in his mind, even if he had repeatedly regretted, until this moment, when he truly saw Elizabeth lying on the bed, bloodied and struggling for her life, he felt it was all his fault.
He had always blamed Pandora’s prosthetic eye, thinking that all of this was due to its seduction or influence.
But at this moment, he realized it was the prosthetic eye that saved her. Without the prosthetic eye, whether she could survive this ordeal was still uncertain.
“Elizabeth.”
Fisher trembled, and finally, tears streamed uncontrollably from his eyes, sliding down his cheeks.
After this, when she took the prosthetic eye back to Nali, Fisher must have seen the Apocalypse Prophecy recorded in the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, as she, because of the beauty of this world, made a grand vow.
He said he wanted to save everyone; he wanted to save this world.
What a grand wish that was!
What a magnificent adventure it would be!
But
But ah.
Before that, he had failed to save Elizabeth.
“F-Fisher.”
She trembled, reaching her hand up in the darkness, stretching out in the endless dark and fear, calling out her lover’s name countless times in her heart and mouth.
But apart from darkness, no one responded to her.
“No one will save you, Elizabeth.”
“Because you lost, but I can save you, give you a chance to turn things around.”
“I am Pandora’s prosthetic eye; I will do everything I can to help you, and I want you to achieve your dream for me.”
In the darkness, Pandora’s prosthetic eye echoed in her mind, but Elizabeth still stared blankly, calling out in pain,
“F-Fisher.”
“Help me, help me.”
“Where are you?”
Did she really believe blindly in winning and losing from beginning to end?
The prosthetic eye gradually descended, reaching for the hand that Elizabeth extended, about to fall into her palm.
“Snap!”
But this time, just before that, a warm hand trembled and tightly grasped her scarred hand.
Elizabeth opened her mouth; even though her whole body was injured, even though her eyes could see nothing, she still inevitably struggled towards the place where the warm hand was extended.
In front of her was Fisher, kneeling on one knee, also battered and bloodied.
He lowered his head, pressing his forehead firmly against the hand of Elizabeth that he was holding tightly.
He trembled, tears flowing more and more as he grasped her.
Fisher lowered his head, tightly holding Elizabeth’s hand, clasping her cold palm, continuously transmitting his warmth to her.
Then, he finally, finally said that sentence that should have been said over ten years ago.
He said to Elizabeth, trembling,
“I’m here, Elizabeth.”
(Volume Five: Fisher’s Apocalypse Prophecy)
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(End of this chapter)
